Finland,a home away from home

After spending 9 months living and studying in Finland I have just totally fallen in love with it. It is an amazing country filled with amazing people none more so than their most famous resident Santa. I just feel that they have everything sussed from public transport to broadband to getting the balance from work to play right.
The country itself is truly breathtaking with undoutedly some of the nicest lakes and countryside that i have ever seen. Not even the -17 degree winters could turn me off from going back to live their.
Helsinki is an amazing city with everything so close and in walking distance. The night life is the best I have ever seen and their is always something to do. For me the Unique selling point of Finland is the people. I met some great people their, they were so helpful and welcoming, true friends. So in few years time if your looking for me look me up in Finland where I will hopefully be enjoying the Finnish way of life.

The changing face of business through Mobile commerce

Mobile commerce is the ability to conduct commerce using a mobile device. In lay man terms it is being able to use your mobile phone to conduct business applications.It first made an appearance in Finland when a coke machine was installed that enabled you to pay for the beverage by sms and since then has made numerous advancements. It is quickly changing the ways that business is carried out on a day to day business and it is paving the way for the development of electronic customer relationships.
Mobile commerce will no doubtedly in the next few years be at the forefront of business as it saves so much time and money.After completeing a sale on the road a salesperson can upload all the information and file the order before they get back into their car never mind getting back to the office.
It provides people on the go with quick information about clients thus the foundation for forming a smart business realtionship. It is becoming more and more competitive out there and it is vital for survival that you stay ahead of the game and embrace mobile commerce.

Jedmania

Jedward.. Any marketing moguls dream clients. There potential and marketability is huge, they certainly are going to make alot of people very very rich.. Their talent? Well they entertain us, they dont sing or dance very well but that doesnt matter any more. Just look at Starvos Flatley on Britains got Talent. Four months ago Jedward were just two ordinary teenagers from Dublin, they loved performing and today they are the most talked about lads on tv, once again showing the power that television still has on us.
From a marketing potential these guys will appeal to young teenage girls who as we know like to spend money on anything associated with their idols. Jedward pyjamas, pencil cases, notebooks not to mention dvds, cds and reportedly they have been asked to write their autobiography.
I believe, watch the space because Jedmania has only just begun, apparently they have even been asked to feature in an episode of the Simpsons joining such legends as the Rolling Stones and U2.

NAMA..... Whats it all about??

NAMA or the National Management Assets Agency is what the Government are saying will help ease the dire state our banks are inand will pave the way for them to rebuild and take Ireland out of the recession. It sounds all a bit too easy and of course their are numerous catches. Many people see NAMA as the Governement bailing banks out with tax payers money. The same tax payers already paying crippling mortages with these banks and barely surviving as wage cuts are happening left, right and centre.
I for one think the Government needs another solution. 2009 has been a seriously hard year on every earner in Ireland and its getting worse. To add insult on to injury AIB tried to over rule a new Governement quota that bank chiefs salary could not top €500,000, they wanted to pay their new incoming chief €600,000 +. Cop on needed here, if they can afford those kind of outrageous salaries then they can tighten their own coffers and stop making the people of Ireland fund it. For too long we have been made to foot the bill for the so called fat cats in society to live their high class life, well I say no more.. And it starts with NAMA. Sort it another way, but leave us out of it.

"Money money money" and the Online Adult Industry

The online adult industry an area that has led to many debates, sadly people have missused it grossly and it has tainted its name. I wont be talking about this aspect but rather the fact that the online industry is a huge money maker and has totally revolutionised the face on the web today.
In 2007 the online adult indstry generated over $ 9 billion in revenue which accounted for 12% of total e commerce. Today it is still the number one product/service on the internet. there is no denying that in that buisness money can be made. Today more than ever it is more competitive as you need news wayd to attract and retain users.

In the early days on the internet these guys energineered numerous ways to make money from visitors to their sites, eg. pay per click, downloads and links. They also formulated ways for other sites to advertise on each others pages through links and pop up banners. This stuff we are all too familiar with and this is where it originated from. Like it or not they changed the face of the web in many ways some great and some not great at all.

"To Tweet or not to tweet" The rise of the social network generation

In the last five years we have seen an explosion of social network sites and a massive increase in users. Not before have we seen so many people online. In society today it is not uncommon to hear the words "I'll facebook them" or I'll see what there doing on twitter. There have never been so many ways to contact a single person in history.

This itself presents a major opportunity for businesses to tap into this market and use these sites as a marketing tool. They has already begun and now many companies have facebook, bebo, blogs and twitters. The next step I believe is targetting customers individually and building online relationships with them. Instead of spending money on finding out about your target customer and it is now just a click away. There is so many new avenues to explore and it will be an exciting process.

However there are negative aspects to having every bit of personal information online. I probably dont need to point them out but there is definently a need to raise awareness of this.
For me personally as a fourth year student with numerous accounts online I think it is important that I portray myself in an appropriate manner. I hope to gain employment in a respectable company, whos to say they wont google my name and look at these accounts. I need to be careful about who I allow yo access these and what they can see.

Social networking is the way forward there is no doubt about it, so get online and dont be left behind.

"Losing my religion"

Religion in modern society has thankfully changed to reflect the freer society that we now live in. We no longer live by the law of the church that was so vigorously followed by our ancestors.

A testament to this is the so called scandal about the priest who has left the priesthood in order to have a public relationship with his girlfriend.

If this came out nationally in the 60's there would have been cries of outrage and disguist. A sign of the change of religion in society has been the public reaction. Media and parishoners alike have praised him and have called for the Vatican to rethink the celibacy vow.

However I do feel that generations are losing the essence of religion. How many people of my age group attend mass on a regular basis, probably not as many as 20 odd years ago. I think this is a sad fact. The church in Ireland in recent years has taken some serious bad press and negative image portrayls and sadly many people have lost faith in the church.

Religion is an important part of society still however its relevancy and importance in each persons life is of somewhat varying to say the least. Sadly many people can now freely admit that religion is no longer part of their lifes.

SEO - The Race to be Number One

Search Engine Optimisation is basically the ways involved in getting what you want to appear at the top of an online search. The definition I was given is that it is the process of designing and updating a website such that it is likely to show up in organic listings for relevent user queries. As a business student who is about to embark on a career ( hopefully) in marketing, I am very interested in this. I am not a very computer orientated person but there is no denying the fact that in todays highly competitive markets it is essential that your company appears as close to the top of a search as possible.

You have two options:

1. Paid for Listings - You pay to appear at the top on the right hand side of the search page.

2. Organic Listings - You do not pay for this but you need to ensure your website has all the relevant material that is recognised by Google for them to place you near the top.

There are numerous advantages and disadvantages for both, but I definently believe that a company wanting to be successful need to be aware of SEO's and how they should go about it. It is important to remember a potential customer may not know of your existence, so how can they find you??

Its an interesting race, and a highly competitve one. It raises alot of issues and certainlyives food for thought for potential marketers like myself..

An under rated game in Ireland.

I am just home from watching one of two best games of football I have seen this season. The first was a qualifying championship game that my team and I played, sadly we lost but we fought until the very end. Tonight I watched our under 16 team take on the Marys in another great game of football in the semi final of the championship. It was exciting stuff right through. After we got off to a slow start a goal just before half time gave the girls the belief and determination to come out and eventually take a 3 point lead into the last five minutes. Sadly for us a last minute goal for the opposition sealed the result as a draw. It was such a thrilling and exciting game and it got me thinking how under rated and unappreciated the ladies game is. The level of skill displayed tonight could certainly be passed on to some of the men's teams in Louth. Although the Roche girls have to go out and do it all again if they go out with the same will and determination I do believe we will have some silverware this year. I think that the county board needs to do more in encouraging ladies football and raising its profile in the county.Louth ladies just missed out a place in the Junior All Ireland final and they won the Leinster, the potential is there, it just needs to be nurtured more. Around this time, we have county finals with widespread coverage in the local papers, it is such a same that the ladies game doesn't even get a quarter of the coverage of the mens games.

E business and what it means to me

As i am now in my fourth week of studying e business I have a totally different view of it. Before I did not really understand the vital role it plays in todays buisness world and how it is shaping the era of online buisness. I guess I under estimated the importance of it. I have encountered it in other modules but never really got the chance to explore it on a deeper level. I am looking forward to the process and I hope it open my eyes to the world of e business and I hope I can say in Decmber that what I have learned can help me in years to come in the business world.

The joys of blogging

I am finding all this blogging business very confusing. Today we used a thing called google analytics which i have never heard of and i am still unsure of what it is.. I still havent managed to find anyone elses blog and i tried to change my main email on this but it wouldnt let me...awh the joys of blogging. Hopefully come December I can look back at this and laugh at how easy it all really was.

sassy j's first blog

First day of blogging. Very exciting indeed.. I hope everday of blogging is this exciting....